Steering-tongue for trucks.



0. ELTON. 'STEERINGTONGUE FOR TRUCKSr APPLICATION men MM. 2a. \911.

ll mw mmw Patented m. 4,1912;

y A mpg mm 3% g OLAF ELTON, OF PORT WASHINGTON, WISCONSIN, ASSIGN'OR TGrillLSOI X MEANUIEAG- TUBING COMPANY, OF PORT WASHING-TON, WISCONSIN;

STEERING-TONGUE F033, TRUGKS.

neaasss.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented pen. a, rear;

To all whomz't may concern:

Be it known that it, Our ELTON, a citizen of the United States, andresident of Port ashington, in the county of Ozaukee and State ofWVisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inSteering-' Tongues for Trucks; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The present invention relates to new and useful improvements in steeringmeans for draft impelled vehicles, and is more particularly directed tothat type of structure wherein the steering Wheels are independentlypivoted at the front of the vehicle and are both directly operable bythe draft tongue to procure a steering action whereby the vehiclemayturn in an arc of maximum diameter.

Various structures of this type have heretofore been employed, but areopen to the objection that an excessive strain in operation is imposedon the pivots of the steering Wheel axis and it is the object of thepresent invention to rovide a structure wherein the wheels are directlycontrolled by the draft tongue, but wherein no strain incident topropulsion of the vehicle or to the weight of the'tongue is imparted tothe pivots in a manner tending to damage said pivots, as

occurs in the existent types of tongue controlled steering knuckles.

It is further an object toprovide a structure of the class describedadapted particularly for embodiment in connection with a truckstructure, and comprising an iaximum sim licit of parts.

ith t e above and other objects and ad vantages in view, the inventionresides more all? tit

particularly in the novel combination, ai: ran ement and formation ofparts more particu arly hereinafter described and particularly ointedout in the appended claim. In t e drawings, r Figure 1 is a top planview of the tongue of a steering structure comprising the presentinvention, this View being taken'as indicated on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2.

2 is a front elevation of the forward end" of the truck, this view beingtaken as indicated on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Referrin now more particularly to the accompanying drawings, wherein theinvention is embodied in conjunction with a truck structure, 5designates the front sill of the truck body and 6 designates the sidesills thereof which are shown in end elevation in Fig. The front wheels7 of the truck are carried on stub axles 8 which project from steeringknuckles which include each a pair of vertically spaced ears 9 andthrough each )air of cars 9 and through cars 10 of the ront sill memberis'passed a pivot shaft 11, which shaft is also extended through theside sills 6 of the truck to form a securing means therefor. The frontsill 5 to provide for its vertical pairs of cars, 10 is in the form of askeleton plate of considerable width whereby the ears 9 of the steeringknuckles comprise relatively spaced bearings imparting a maximumstrength.

' For turning the steering knuckles, arms 12 extend forwardly therefromand these arms are pivotally connected by a link 13. The ton gnc of thevehicle comprises an inner section 14 which is pivoted to the front sillplate and to the link is, and an outer sec tion 15 forming the tongueproper, which is pivoted at 16 to the innersection immediatcly forwardlyof the link 13.

The arms 12 are inclined inwardly where-. by their pivotal connectionswith the link 13 lie each 1n a plane disposed at right angles i to theplane of the tongue and seering knuckle pivots, and intersecting saidplane at the axis of the respective steering knuckle pivot when thetongue is axially al ned with the vehicle whereby substantially aparallelogram is formed permitting free relative pivotal movementswithout occasioning any slidable pivots. V y I.

The) foregoing structure is exceedingly simple in design, and it isnoted that the entire draftsstrain is imparted directly to the truck.body and not distributed in any manner through the steering knucklepivots. Also, by pivoting the main tongue body forwardly ofthe link 13,the major portion of the weight of the tongue is removed from saidpivots.

Although the structure has beenshown and described particularly as foruse in connection with trucks, it is readily understood that it mayequall well be applied. to any other type of dra t impelled vehicles.

I claim:

A one piece skeleton truck sill comprising a flat top strut having earsat the ends thereof, an arched strut disposed beneath at each endthereof in axial alinement with the ears of the top strut, anintermediate transverse tie strut extending across the arch of saidarched strut, vertical pillow struts connecting the adjacent ends ofsaid arched strut and top strut, and a steering knuckle pivoted betweeneach pair of axially alined ears.

. In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand atPort Wash- 10 ington, in the county of Ozaukee and State of Visconsin,in the presence of two witmesses.

OLAF ELTON.

\Vitnesses Enw. P. HANS, T. A. BOERNER.

